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Grandmother Trees

At the top of the highest point on our small farm, there is a great white oak tree with a wide trunk base. With the overgrown thicket and steep incline, it’s not an easy point to reach, especially during inclement weather, and most visitors to the farm never even know it’s there. Like trekking to the Oracle in her mountaintop temple for self-discovery, the journey sometimes feels like the destination. Whenever I venture up there, though, I sit in awe of its size and the way in which it seems to have birthed all of the much smaller and younger trees below it. Since our first encounter, I have affectionately called her the Grandmother Tree.

Through his brilliant record as an arborist in The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben has revealed to the laity how trees support and communicate with one another across generations and through underground mycelium networks by offering nourishment to aged, felled, and dying trees for years upon years in what he terms “Social Security”. However, here, this Grandmother Tree atop our hill appears to stand strong and proud, offering her protection and guidance to those who have come after and will likely eventually outlive her.

The leaves, branches, and bark she sheds do what no human can ever adequately reproduce on his own by creating lush, loamful topsoil. This practice, which has been perfected over hundreds of thousands of years, protects landscapes and species of all kinds from the harmful effects of erosion and flooding. Through our appetite for endless efficiency and increasingly massive, less diversified global food production, we humans have effectively eliminated 70% of the world's topsoil in approximately 150 years. The numbers are startling when scientists state we have essentially 60 years of topsoil degradation left before the entire farming system collapses.

Although quite en vogue among organic farmers and researchers over the last 20 or so years, sustainable, life-affirming agriculture is not something that’s new. In fact, it’s entirely possible your own family practiced some form of regenerative food production within the past 3 to 4 generations. Students in American schools now even learn about the indigenous peoples' development of the “three sisters”, a self-promoting and sustaining planting together of corn, beans, and squash. So when I hear about present-day farmers utilizing Earth-supporting, mutually beneficial growing practices, my interest is always piqued. For many, these practices are discovered through years of trial and error. Many vegetable growers consider themselves sort of amateur land scientists, after all. For others, the hard-earned wisdom of best practices is passed on generation to generation. For all, there is an openness to growth, an embodied, soulful flexibility that can be employed in other times when encountering changing conditions in our lives and communities. Let us be a people who praise topsoil, who seek the wisdom of grandmothers and grandmother trees, and who find a way to communicate our support to future generations.

On a sunny Tuesday morning, my two-year-old and I joined the eternally optimistic Susan Willis at her Bitta Blue Farm on River Road in Killingworth to harvest pole beans and talk about some of the wisdom she’s gathered while living and working over the last 50 years with zero-waste on this organic farm.

SGM: Why do you farm? How did you come to it?

SW: I think there is a certain group of people who can’t spend a lot of time indoors or sitting. There are others who like to be indoors or stationary, but I was never one of them. I had a job which required me to be at a desk inside. It was money, but it was torture! I have always been prone to be outdoors. When I was young, we raised five children in the late 70s and early 80s, and I was always keen on living minimally, seeing if we could produce what a family needs. We started with chickens, like a lot of people are starting with today. And then we got goats because my kids were little and we needed milk. None of it was to be narrow-mindedly self-sufficient, but rather in an effort to try providing for the needs of a family out of the way you live and what you do on the land.

SGM: What are your recommendations for the first things folks can begin to grow in their own yards?

SW: Everybody around here puts in their tomato, pepper, and eggplants. I would suggest getting started with lettuce, spinach, and arugula. You know, grow a salad. Bok Choy and quicker-growing greens can work well in cooler weather like this. Kids can be wonderful guides for parents looking to get started as well. Kids love pulling a carrot out of the ground; for them, it’s a little miracle. Opening peas, looking in the little pods, pulling off beans can all be rewarding small miracles. Even I try new things each year. This year, I started soybeans after my daughter’s suggestion to make my own edamame beans.

SGM: So, how do you strive for no waste?

SW: This is a totally organic farm devoted to no waste. Everything that is grown either goes to my customers or like in the case of these coarse beans, they go to the goats and the damaged leaves go to chickens and ducks. Then, all of the manure from the animals goes back into the soil to grow the vegetables. The idea is that a small farm that is devoted to using everything and recycling everything is actually efficient. So, we’re working to reduce waste, but really, producing efficiency is the aim.

SGM: It seems like efficiency is a measurement of success on your farm. When do you know the farm is working efficiently?

SW: Well, it’s not really something that can be calculated in man hours, or in this case, woman hours. It is about working to produce food that is the most healthful, fresh, and interesting for customers. I like that even though there are seasons, farming is pretty much a year-round endeavor. In the worst, coldest weather, I am already planning what I’ll be doing in the coming season. I’ll write down what worked, what didn’t work, and what needs to be improved on. For instance, I am discovering there is no limit to the number of chickens you should be raising for eggs. Customers have needs, after all!

SGM: Well, I think I’ve kept you long enough from your bean harvest! Is there anything else you would like to share before I go?

SW: Everyone should come visit us for our Open Farm Day on Nov. 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. We’re also hosting a garlic workshop at 11 a.m. People can learn a lot about what we do and what they can do at home. Being out and working, even with perennial flowers and maintaining any type of garden, is excellent for mental well-being. I am a positive, optimistic person. Even when there are setbacks, I am quick to get over them and get going onto the next thing. I am outdoors; what more could I want? It helps me maintain the desire to keep moving. I’m 77 years old, and I haven’t stopped working, but I know not everyone has my mental or even physical disposition. But, I do want others to be open to experiencing how replenishing and rewarding it is to grow things or raise animals. It is a reward to use your hands and then witness the ways life reveals itself before you!